Under The Skin There Is LightThere is more to life than meets the eye, and so much of it lies in the continent of the heart. Yet so much of our world on the outside can teach us about that mysterious sub-terra inside, and vice-versa. It's easy to crawl up in our head or into our feelings and make a home there, but I like Annie Dillard's take on things:"Lick a finger; feel the now." This cd is a brief glimpse into one person's struggle to find the unseen real and live it. I hope these songs find a home in you and help you along your particular journey. ps There is more hope and depth in your days to be mined, even in the midst of the mundane... Lick a finger; feel the now. Oh, a little about me... I'm the youngest of six kids from an Irish Catholic family. We lived in an old farmhouse in a suburb of Cincinnati at 4400 Jessup Road. I grew up listening to 8-tracks of Cat Stevens, the Beatles, 70's rock albums thanks to my brother, and Bruce Springstein, thanks to my sister. Istarted playing guitar on an ancient Kent classical guitar that had only two strings on it. I saw a guy teach someone a chord in a movie and tried it myself and discovered the two-string power chord. My brother, who is 10 years older than me, and a very good musician, noticed what I was doing and bought me a"dime store" guitar/amp combo for Christmas when I was16. I started playing whatever I was into at the time, like Zeplin, U2, the Beatles, etc. When Iwent to college, two friends asked me to play bass with them in a blues band. I had neverplayed bass, but gave it a shot. The guitarist had a punk background and we ended up beinga funk and thrash trio called Gourdo. My love for playing music grew to the point where that'swhat I wanted to do when I got out of college. That band really died when we graduated butI held onto it, or to the idea of it, for two more years. I started writing my own music andtried to sing a bit as well. I played bass for a year in a Sabbath-meets-Love & Rockets hardrock band. I started to take my spirituality more seriously during this time and startedfollowing Jesus. I left the hard rock band as my life and interests were changing. I joined agroup of believers called Vineyard Central where worship, community, service, and simplicitywere practiced sincerely in an effort to emulate Jesus and the eternal kind of life he talkedabout. I led worship there for a year or so and eventually started writing songs again. I havea lot of influences including Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Page, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, the Verve,David Gray, and U2. Recently I've really enjoyed CDs by Gillian Welch, Kim Taylor,Coldplay, Over the Rhine, Rufus Wainwright, Cameron Martin Cochran, andAshley Peacock. I love classical, some blues, folk, bluegrass, indiginous international music,swing, ambient, jazz, especially older John Coltrane and Miles Davis type stuff, as well asceltic, especially Seamus Egan. My music and lyrics come from the ironies, struggles, graces,and mysteries of life and I hope to engender a sense of solidarity among fellow pilgrims on this journey.